To Access file CLICK HERE
Thursday, March 23, 2017
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 23RD MAR 2017
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 23RD MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1.
CENTRE APPROVES OVER 1.17 LAKH MORE HOUSES FOR URBAN POOR AT RS. 5,773 CR
i.
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation approved
construction of new 1,17,814 affordable houses under the Prime Minister’s Awas
Yojana (Urban) for the benefit of urban poor in six States namely Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Kerala and Karnataka.
ii.
The total cost of the project is Rs.5,773 cr for which central assistance of
Rs.1,816 cr has been approved.
iii.
The construction project is being undertaken under 2 categories: Beneficiary
Led Construction and Affordable Housing in Partnership component. Central
assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh is provided for each beneficiary.
iv.
Under BLC, beneficiaries are assisted to build own houses on the land available
with them or take up improvement works for increasing living space and other
amenities. Under AHP, State Government provides the land to house urban poor.
v
.Thus the total number of houses being taken up for construction for the
benefit of urban poor under PMAY(Urban) has gone up to 17,60,507 with total
project cost of Rs.96,018 cr for which central assistance of Rs.27,714 cr has
been approved.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIR QUIZ – 21 & 22 MARCH
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIR QUIZ – 21 & 22 MARCH
1.
HOW MANY INDIAN HAS BEEN NAMED IN THE 2017 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM’S 100 YOUNG
GLOBAL LEADERS LIST?
a) Five
b) Four
c) Six
d) Seven
ANS - A
2. WHEN IS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY
OF HAPPINESS OBSERVED?
a) March 21
b) March 19
c) March 20
d) March 18
ANS - C
3.
THE SOLAR ENERGY SCHEME APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR SMALL POWERLOOM UNITS
WILL COME INTO EFFECT FROM WHICH DATE?
a) May 1, 2017
b) April 30,2017
c) March 31, 2017
d) April 1, 2017
ANS - D
4. WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS THE
NEW MD & CEO OF THE INDIAN BANK?
a) P Srinivasan
b) Kishore Piraji Kharat
c) Ravindra Prabhakar Marathe
d) Mahesh Kumar Jain
ANS - B
5.
THE NAND NIKETAN TOWNSHIP WHICH BECAME INDIA’S FIRST PRIVATE SECTOR TOWNSHIP TO
GO FULLY CASHLESS IS LOCATED IN WHICH STATE?
a) Madhya Pradesh
b) Bihar
c) Gujarat
d) Rajasthan
ANS - C
6. WHO AMONG THE GIVEN HAS BECOME THE 1ST WOMEN
BELONGING TO PRIVATE SECTOR TO BE APPOINTED AS THE FULL-TIME MEMBER OF
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA?
a) Madhabi Puri Buch
b) Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
c) Sara Blakely
d) Kalpana Morparia
ANS - A
7. THE SECOND INDIA-UAE CONFERENCE ON
GLOBALIZATION WAS HELD IN WHICH CITY?
a) Bangaluru
b) New Delhi
c) Abu Dhabi
d) Dubai
ANS - D
8. WHO HAS BEEN HONORED WITH THE KIRTI CHAKRA BY
PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE?
a) Ramesh Pratap Singh
b) Major Rohit Suri
c) Vijay Kumar
d) Gursevak Singh
ANS - B
9. THE INDIAN SIGN LANGUAGE DICTIONARY SOON TO
BE LAUNCHED BY THE GOVERNMENT IS BEING DEVELOPED BY WHICH ORGANIZATION?
a) Sign Language Interpreters
Association of New Zealand
b) Association of Visual Language
Interpreters of Canada
c) World Federation of the Deaf
d) Indian Sign Language Research
and Training Centre
ANS - D
10. WHAT IS THE THEME OF THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL
DAY OF FORESTS?
a) Forests and Energy
b) Forests | Climate | Change
c) My Forest, Our Future
d) Forests and Water
ANS - A
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 22TH MAR 2017
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 22TH MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1.
GOVERNMENT SET TO LAUNCH INDIA’S FIRST SIGN LANGUAGE DICTIONARY SOON
i.
The government has planned to soon launch India’s state of the art dictionary
depicting the sign languages used by hearing and speech impaired people across
the nation to bring uniformity and bridge the communication gap.
ii.
The Indian Sign Language dictionary is being developed by the Indian Sign
Language Research and Training Centre in both print and video format.
iii.
ISLRTC has so far compiled 6,032 Hindi and English words and their
corresponding graphic representation of the signs which are used in daily life.
iv.
The ISL dictionary consists of graphic representations of popular signs used by
the hearing impaired and will also include regional variations along with
legal, technical and medical terms.
v.
Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre is an autonomous organization
of the Government of India established under Society Registration Act, 1860
under the aegis of Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
vi. The main objectives of ISLRTC are to develop
manpower for using, teaching and conducting research in Indian Sign Language,
to promote the use of ISL as an educational mode in collaboration with
universities, national and international bodies.
2.
BIRAC’S 5TH FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATED ON MARCH 20-21, 2017
i.
The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council has celebrated its 5th
foundation day on March 20-21 with the theme “BIRAC@5: Impacting the Biotech
Ecosystem”.
ii.
Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan,
was the Chief Guest of 2017 foundation day while Minister of State for Science
& Technology and Earth Sciences, Y S Chowdary was the Guest of Honour.
iii.
The foundation day celebration was followed by Grand Challenges India Meeting
2017 which was organized by the BIRAC – PMU of DBT – BMGF and Wellcome Trust.
3.
MUKESH AMBANI TOPS THE FORBES’S BILLIONAIRE LIST IN INDIA
i.
According to the report released by Forbes, India has 4th highest number of
billionaires in the World and the Indian group is led by Reliance Industries
chief Mukesh Ambani.
ii.
Top 3 Billionaire are Bill Gates, Microsoft Co-Founder $ 86 billion, Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway Chief $75.6
billion and Jeff Bezos, Amazon $72.8 billion.
iii.
Top 3 Indian Billionaires are Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries $ 23.2 billion,
Lakshmi Mittal Arcelor Mittal $ 16.4
billion and Azim Premji Wipro Ltd $ 14.9 billion.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 21ST MAR 2017
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 21ST MAR 2017
1. GOVERNMENT APPROVES SOLAR ENERGY
SCHEME FOR SMALL POWERLOOM UNITS
i. Shri Ajay Tamta, The Minister of
State for Textiles, informed the Lok Sabha that the Government has approved a
new scheme, Solar Energy Scheme, to provide financial assistance/capital
subsidy to small powerloom units, for installation of Solar Photo Voltaic plant.
ii. Its aim is to mitigate the
problem of power cut/ shortage faced by decentralized powerloom units in the
country so as to improve efficiency, utilization, productivity to face both the
domestic and international markets competitively.
iii. The Scheme is meant for Units
having 04, 06 & 08 powerlooms and subsidies for different SPV plants will
be given in the range of Rs 2,25,000 to Rs 8,55,000 depending upon the capacity
of the SPV plant.
iv. The Scheme will come into force
with effect from April 1, 2017.
v. Under the Solar Energy Scheme, the
Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) plant will be implemented in two modes:On-Grid Solar
Power Plant and Off-Grid Solar Power Plant.
2. INDIA’S LONGEST ROAD TUNNEL,
CHENENI-NASHIRI TUNNEL READY FOR OPENING
i. The longest road tunnel of India
built at Cheneni in Jammu’s Udhampur district has successfully completed its
trail run and is ready for public opening.
ii. The longest tunnel connecting
Chenani and Nashiri town is likely to be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi by the
end of March.
iii. The trial run was successfully
carried out between March 9-15 during both peak and non peak hours.
iv. The 9-km-long tunnel passes
through the Himalayas and is a part of the 286-km-long four-lane project on
Jammu- Srinagar National Highway.
v. The tunnel is 1st in India to be
equipped with world class integrated tunnel control system through which
ventilation, signals, fire control, communication and electrical systems will
be automatically actuated.
3. UNION CABINET CLEARS 4 GST
SUPPLEMENTARY LEGISLATIONS FOR INTRODUCTION TO PARLIAMENT
i. The Union Cabinet chaired by PM
Shri Narendra Modi has approved the 4 supporting GST legislations on March 20.
ii. The 4 supporting legislations are
the Compensation Law, the Central-GST, Integrated-GST and Union Territory-GST.
iii. Once the Parliament approves the
Bill, the states would start taking their SGST bill for discussion and passage
in the respective state assemblies.
iv. Once the new GST regime is into
effect it will subsume central taxes like excise and service tax and state
levies like VAT.
v. A composite GST will be charged on
sale of goods or rendering of services while the revenue would be shared
between the Centre and the states in almost equal proportion.
4. FIVE INDIANS NAMED IN WEF’S 100
YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS LIST 2017
i. The annual World Economic Forum’s
100 Young Global Leaders list released for the year 2017 have given place to
five Indians for their innovative approaches.
ii. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder
& CEO PayTm, Shruti Shibulal, The Tamara Hospitality,Ambarish Mitra,
Founder and CEO of Blippar, a mobile phone app.
iii. Hindol Sengupta and Rwitwika
Bhattacharya-Agarwal, Editor-at-large, Fortune India and Founder and CEO of
Swaniti Initiative.
Monday, March 20, 2017
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIR QUIZ – 19 & 20 MARCH
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIR QUIZ – 19 & 20 MARCH
1.
THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT PROPOSED A DRAFT OF LABOUR CODE TO
PROVIDE SOCIAL SECURITY COVER TO THE ENTIRE WORKFORCE IN THE COUNTRY. WHO IS
THE UNION MINISTER OF LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT?
a) Bandaru Dattatreya
b) Sis Ram Ola
c) Mallikarjun Kharge
d) Narendra Singh Tomar
ANS - A
2.
THE 1ST EDITION OF THE 3 DAY HARYANA SAHITYA SANGAM WAS HELD IN WHICH CITY OF
HARYANA?
a) Kurukshetra
b) Panipat
c) Rohtak
d) Panchkula
ANS - C
3.
THE TWO DAY 2017 GLOBAL MILLENNIUM SUMMIT WAS ORGANIZED IN WHICH COUNTRY?
a) Dubai, UAE
b) Canberra, Australia
c) Kathmandu,Nepal
d) Moscow,Russia
ANS - A
4.
HOW MANY INDIAN WOMEN HAVE BEEN HONORED WITH THE 2017 ‘WOMEN ICONS’ AWARD AMONG
THE 25 ASIAN WOMEN IN SINGAPORE FOR DEDICATING THEIR LIVES TO SOCIAL WORK?
a) 10
b) 11
c) 20
d) 15
ANS - B
5. WHO HAS BEEN SWORN IN AS THE
NEW CHIEF MINISTER OF UTTARAKHAND?
a) Harak Singh Rawat
b) Madan Kaushik
c) Dhan Singh Rawat
d) Trivendra Singh Rawat
ANS - D
6. STATE OWNED PSU, NTPC COMMISSIONED THE SECOND
UNIT OF 660 MW OF MOUDA SUPER THERMAL POWER STATION STAGE-II. MOUDA SUPER
THERMAL POWER STATION IS LOCATED IN WHICH STATE?
a) Tamil Nadu
b) West Bengal
c) Karnataka
d) Maharashtra
ANS - D
7. WHO HAS BEEN SWORN IN AS THE NEW CHIEF
MINISTER OF UTTAR PRADESH?
a) Keshav Prasad Maurya
b) Yogi Adityanath
c) Raj Nath Singh
d) Amit Shah
ANS - B
8. WHAT WAS THE THEME OF THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL
BUDDHIST CONFERENCE?
a) Buddhism in the 21st Century
b) Fountain of Buddhism and World Peace
c) Buddhism for Conflict Avoidance and Peace
Building
d) Connecting World with Buddhism
ANS - A
9. THE FIRST MADE-IN-INDIA TRAIN NAMED ________
WAS FLAGGED OFF FROM THE DADAR STATION TO BORIVALI AT LOKMANYA TILAK TERMINUS.
a) Vani
b) Mahasweta
c) Medha
d) Bharti
ANS - C
10. DILIP SHANGHVI WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED BY THE
GOVERNMENT AS A MEMBER ON THE WESTERN AREA LOCAL BOARD OF RESERVE BANK OF
INDIA, SERVES AS THE MD OF WHICH COMPANY?
a) Accenture
b) Sun Pharmaceuticals
c) Ranbaxy
d) Larson & Turbo
ANS - B
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 20TH MAR 2017
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 20TH MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1.
2017 INTERNATIONAL BUDDHIST CONFERENCE HELD IN BIHAR
i.
The 3 days International Buddhist Conference was held at the Rajgir International
Convention Center of Nav Nalanda Mahavira Deemed University, Rajgir, Bihar.
ii.
The conference was inaugurated by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama jointly with the
Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Mahesh Sharma by lighting a ceremonial
lamp.
iii.
The main theme of the conference was Buddhism in the 21st Century –
Perspectives and Responses to Global Challenges and Crisis.
iv.
He also inaugurated the Nava Nalanda University’s new department of the
Buddhist Science, first of its kind in Asia.
2.
FIRST MADE-IN-INDIA TRAIN, MEDHA, FLAGGED OFF AT DADAR STATION
i.
India’s 41st homemade train for Western Railway Fleet, Medha was flagged off
for its maiden run by the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, via videoconferencing
from Dadar to Borivali at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus.
ii.
The 12-coach, made-in-India train, halted at Bandra and Andheri stations during
the transit. Medha has been manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in
Chennai. The train has been installed with LED lighting to reduce energy consumption.
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 19TH MAR 2017
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 19TH MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1.
LABOUR MINISTRY PROPOSES LABOUR CODE TO PROVIDE SOCIAL SECURITY COVER TO ALL
WORKERS
i.
The Union Ministry of Labour & Employment has proposed a preliminary draft
of Labour Code to provide social security cover to the entire workforce in the
country including self-employed and agricultural workers.
ii.
The Code on Social Security & Welfare 2017 seeks to simplify, rationalize,
consolidate, and amend the laws relating to social security of workforce so as
to make them less complex for easier comprehension, implementation and
enforcement.
iii.
This is for the 1st time that the ministry has formulated a code to cover
agricultural workers along with self-employed people and target to provide
social security benefits to 45 cr workers.
2. FIRST-EVER HARYANA SAHITYA SANGAM BEGAN IN
PANCHKULA
i.
The 1st edition of the Haryana Sahitya Sangam began at Indradhanush Auditorium,
Panchkula in Haryana.
ii.
The 3 day event was inaugurated by the CM Manohar Lal Khattar and has been
organized as a part of the Haryana Swarna Jayanti celebrations.
iii.
The objective of the festival is to highlight the contribution of Haryana in
the field of literature and culture and to provide a platform for young and
budding writers to get genuine and wide range of guidance.
3.
SPORTS MINISTER VIJAY GOEL ADDRESSES GLOBAL MILLENNIUM SUMMIT AT DUBAI
i.
Shri Vijay Goel, The Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs and Sports was
invited as the Chief Guest at the 2-day Global Millennium Summit in Dubai.
ii.
The Summit has been organized by the Shri Ram College of Commerce, University
of Delhi in association with the Office of International Programmes and IIM-Ahmedabad.
iii.
Goel said that a National Youth Policy has been launched in 2014 replacing the
previous National Youth Policy, 2003 for the youth of India.
iv.
The new policy empowers youth of the country to achieve their full potential,
and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of
nations.
v.
The Global Millennium Summit is a 1st-of-its-kind initiative where an Indian
institute has organized an International Summit. The theme of the summit is
‘Future of this Millennium’. The Summit aims to provide the youth across the
world with a platform to discuss, act and interact.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 18TH MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1. GST
COUNCIL APPROVES SGST & UTGST DRAFT BILLS AT ITS 12TH MEETING
i. The Goods
and Service Tax council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley cleared the
State GST and Union Territory GST laws during its 12 Council meet.
ii. Now the
draft bills will need to be approved by the Cabinet and taken up in
Parliament’s ongoing budget session for final approval.
iii. The
SGST draft law will have to be approved by the legislative assemblies of
respective states including Delhi and Puducherry.
iv. The
UTGST draft law is for the union territories like Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which do not have
legislative assemblies.
v. The GST
tax regime has 9 set of rules and regulations out of which the Council has
already approved 5 including registration, payment, refunds, invoices and
returns.
vii. The 4
other rules namely composition, valuation, input tax and credit transitions is
yet to get formal approval of the Council and will be taken up in the next
meeting on March 31. After March 31, the Council will take up the exercise of
fitment of various commodities in the GST tax slabs of 5%, 12%, 15% and 28%.
2. INDIA,
BRAZIL CONCLUDE SOCIAL SECURITY AGREEMENT
i. India and
Brazil have finalised text of the Social Security Agreement. It will be
effective from 2018.
ii. This is
the 1st SSA agreement between the BRICS Countries.
iii. India
has signed Social Security Agreements with 18 countries: Australia, Belgium,
Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary,
Japan, Portugal, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and
South Korea.
iv. SSA will
help to promote more investment flows between the 2 countries. A detached
workers of the 2 countries are exempted from making social security
contributions in either countries so long as they were making such
contributions in their respective countries.
3.
DEMANDS FOR GRANTS OF MINISTRY OF DEFENCE FOR 2017-18 PASSED IN LOK SABHA
i. The Lok
Sabha passed the Demands for Grants of Ministry of Defence for 2017-18 after
negotiating with the opposition.
ii. In
2017-18, the Ministry of Defence has been allocated Rs 3,59,854 cr (including
pensions) for expenditure across the various services, production
establishments and research and development organisations.
iii. This
allocation is the highest from all other departments and represents 16.8% of
the central government’s budget of 2017-18 and 2.1% of India’s estimated GDP.
4. G20
MEET OF FINANCE MINISTERS & CENTRAL BANK GOVERNORS BEGAN IN GERMANY
i. The 2 day
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet began in Baden-Baden,
Germany.
ii. The
meeting will focus on strengthening economic resilience in finance,
digitalization and promote investment in Africa.
iii. The
meetings between finance ministers and central bank governors will provide a
preliminary discussion platform ahead the G20 Summit of heads of state and government,
which will be held in Hamburg.
iv. This is
the 1st global gather to discuss economic challenges since Donald Trump took
over as the US President. The gathering will help to set the tone for
international commerce and finance.
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 17TH MAR 2017
DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 17TH MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1.
CABINET APPROVALS ON MARCH 15, 2017
i. The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of PM Shri
Narendra Modi gave its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
between Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie and
Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management, Namibi.
ii. The government was apprised of the Memorandum of
Understanding signed between India with Indonesia for cooperation in youth and
sports matters and Kyrgyz Republic for cooperation in the field of youth
development.
iii. Cabinet also gave its approval to the revised
Memorandum of Understanding and Mode of Operation between India and Bangladesh
for establishing Border Haats on India-Bangladesh Border.
iv. Narendra Modi approved signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding between the Directorate General of Lighthouses & Lightships,
Ministry of Shipping and the Department of Shipping, Government of Bangladesh
on Aids to Navigation.
v. The Centre has approved to increase the Dearness
Allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners to
4% from the existing rate of 2% with effect from January 1, 2017.
2.
TAMIL NADU FINANCE MINISTER JAYAKUMAR PRESENTS TAX-FREE BUDGET FOR 2017-18
i. The Tamil Nadu Finance Minister D Jayakumar presented a
tax free and revenue deficit budget for the fiscal 2017-18 in the state
Legislative Assembly. It is the 1st Budget presented by the state Finance
Minister as well as the 1st budget of the AIADMK government headed by E.
Palaniswami.
ii. Total Revenue Receipts: Rs 1,59,363 cr, Total
Expenditure: Rs 1,75,293 cr.
iii. Revenue Deficit: Rs 15,930 cr, Fiscal Deficit: Rs
41,977 cr (2.79% of GDP)
3.
INDIA AMONG OTHER SOUTH EAST ASIAN COUNTRY SIGNS WHO’S CALL TO END TB BY 2030
i. India along with other South East Asian Region countries
signed a ‘Call for Action’ to end tuberculosis and pledged to take efforts to end
the disease by 2030.
ii. The ‘call for
action’ was signed by the Health ministers of the WHO’s South-East Asia Region
countries and the World Health Organization on the concluding day of the 2 day
ministerial meeting towards ending TB in the region.
iii. The initiative envisages scale-up efforts and
implementing adequately funded, innovative, multi-sectoral and comprehensive
measures to achieve the global target to end the disease by 2030.